The People's Republic of China is advancing efforts to explore the Moon with the announced plans of robotic probes to provide remote sensing and soil samples in the near-term while also continuing to develop flight booster hardware - like the Long March-5 - that may one day take Chinese humans to the Moon. The new Chinese space station planned to be lofted to orbit this year has been delayed to 2011 due technical reasons reports Chinese media. The second Chinese lunar spacecraft orbiter Chang'e-2 will launch in October 2010. To obtain a well-grounded view of the Chinese space program, this Blogger recommends reading "Chinese Space Policy: A Study in Domestic and International Politics," (2007) by Roger Handberg and Zhen Li, "The New Space Race: China vs. the United States," (2010) by Erik Seedhouse, "When China Rules the World," (Nov. 2009) by Martin Jacques, "China's Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation," (March 2009) by David Shambaugh, and last but not least, "The Three Faces of Chinese Power" (2008) by David Lampton.
China is becoming a significantly stronger space power over the coming decade. But how the nation's technology will evolve both technologically and politically is subject to varied analysis and academic debate. The foregoing books provide some informed insights as to what one might expect of China in space technology, domestic politics, and international behavior.
Paris-based Euroconsult estimates China's civil and military space spending at $2-billion for 2009 as compared to the United States with combined civil and military space spending of $48.8 billlion or nearly 72% of the world's total government space outlays.
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